16 June, 2015

E3 2015 - Nintendo Press Conference Roundup

By
Kyle Shimmin

Nintendo upped the
crazy Japanese quotient with their Direct this year, catch up on all they
showcased right here!

Starfox Zero

The show opened up
with Reggie, Miyamoto and Iwata puppets, which will soon flood the internet in
gif form. The puppets slowly turned into Starfox characters and then gameplay
of the new Starfox Zero game was shown. This included mech combat and new
vehicles like the hovercraft. The new first-person aiming mechanics offered by
the Wii U Gamepad were also demonstrated. The name of the game is inspired by
the Kanji for Zero ‘零’.

According to Reggie,
the theme for Nintendo this year is transformation, this goes for their games
and the company itself as they celebrate Mario’s 30th anniversary and reflect
on how they have changed and will continue to change. Discussing their theme
parks, mobile, and new console investments, which we will learn more about in
2016.

Skylanders
Superchargers

New Amiibos are on
their way along with ‘Turbo Charged Donkey Kong’, with a Barrel blaster and
‘Hammer Slam Bowser’, with his Clam Cruiser, for the new Skylanders
Superchargers game. These Amiibos will work with both Skylanders and Amiibo allowing
you to switch between the two.

Legend of Zelda:
Triforce Heroes

A 3 player
co-operative game on the 3DS, Triforce Heroes allows players to stand atop each
other, forming a totem. A totem of Link. The phrase ‘Totem Time’ popped up
multiple times in the demonstration. During the following ‘Dev Story’, it was
revealed that the game is set in a fashionable kingdom, each costume offers
different abilities. It’s set to launch fall 2015.

Hyrule Warriors
Legends

This 3DS title will
include all the downloadable characters from the Wii U version, in addition to
new characters and stages inspired by Windwaker. Koei Tecmo representing!

Metroid Prime: Blast
Ball

Some kind of 3 versus
3, first-person ball sport was shown on the 3DS. It may or may not be part of the next game…

Metroid Prime: Federation Force

Coming 2016 to the
3DS, Federation Force includes co-operative multiplayer and the aforementioned
Blast Ball.

Fire Emblem Fates

A trailer for the
upcoming, Fire Emblem Fates showed anime boys and girls fighting in their most dynamic
manner yet. Don’t fear, the
beautiful anime cutscenes are still present. It’s due to release 2016.

Shin Megami Tensei x
Fire Emblem

A Fire emblem/Persona
mix brings you all the hottest Japanese synthetic singing (similar to Vocaloid)
that you could want. The trailer was all in Japanese making it hard to
translate as we are but baka gaijins, but it looked cool! It will release
sometime 2016.

Xenoblade Chronicles
X

A game full of mechs,
monsters, and awesome music, Xenoblade Chronicles X is set to release on the
4th of December, 2015.

Animal Crossing Happy
Home Decorator

Just in case you
haven’t had your daily cute Animal Crossing goodness, Animal Crossing Happy
Home Decorator is here to help! The game lets you work for Tom Nook, the ‘Evil’
as many fans of the series would call him, Real Estate manager under the Happy
Homes sector. In the game you can meet old fan favourites such as Isabelle and
KK Slider as you design homes, classrooms, and even restaurants for the animals
in the Village on your 3DS.

Animal Crossing
Amiibo Festival

Coming of the piping
hot Animal Crossing Happy Home Decorator news, comes the much colder yet still
cool Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival, releasing holiday 2015. The game looks to
combine Animal Crossing gameplay with that of Mario Party and with the name
‘Amiibo’ in there, you can already guess that there will most likely be some
way to use your precious Amiibos in game.

Yoshi’s Woolly World

Yoshi’s Woolly World
made another appearance, looking as adorable as ever, until it took a dark
turn… Yoshi can transform into bizarre hybrids of other characters, such as
Mario, using Amiibo, co-operative multiplayer was also shown.

Yo-Kai Watch

Many Yo-Kais were
befriended in this trailer for the 3DS game Yo-Kai watch. It didn’t look unlike
Pokemon in some regards?

Mario & Luigi
Paper Jam

A short gameplay
trailer was shown of Mario, Luigi and Paper Mario beating up Goomba’s and
taking their lunch money – or whatever passes for Goomba money… It will be
coming to 3DS next spring.

Mario Tennis: Ultra
Smash

They played tennis. At
one point Mario jumped. Also the camera was dangerously close to capturing wholly
inapposite shots of Peach. You can play too, on the Wii U this holiday season!

Super Mario Maker

Super Mario Maker was
displayed, showing how easy it is for anyone to develop a stage, using any part
of Mario they want. For example; Goomba’s can now be put underwater and enemies
can be stacked atop each other to make a tower. Miyamoto talked about how hard
it was to design and then make changes on the stages for the original game.
Amiibos will have support in the game as you can pick up a mushroom power up
and turn into an 8-bit version of the Amiibo character used. An announce Date
of September 11th 2015 was given for North America.

Reggie closed the
show by saying that Mario has touched everyone… Revealing a fun side project
called ‘Let’s go Super Mario’, where you can upload videos of yourself
cosplaying or playing the Mario theme, to celebrate Mario’s 30th anniversary.